Leading with Finance

Leading with Finance

Leading with Finance

Develop a Toolkit for Making and Understanding Financial Decisions

Leading with Finance will equip you with an intuitive knowledge of financial principles and enable you to understand the market in which your organization operates, create and assess value, and communicate decisions to financial stakeholders.

What You'll Learn

Discover how and why finance is concerned with cash flow versus profits and why that matters for your business and budget

Identify ways to create and measure value in order to evaluate and pitch potential projects

Examine how capital markets work and how they affect your business

Develop a financial intuition that will give you the confidence to make better decisions in your career and life

About the Professor

Mihir Desai
is the Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance at Harvard Business School and a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He is an award-winning teacher and leading scholar of corporate finance and tax policy. He has published more than 25 case studies, a casebook, and has testified before the US Congress on policy issues.

Who Will Benefit

Early and Mid-Career Professionals

Gain the skills and confidence needed to understand the financial landscape of your business and industry in order to advance your career, especially if you’re in a non-finance role.

Aspiring Finance or Investment Professionals

Prepare for future professional opportunities and jumpstart your career by gaining an understanding of financial concepts, terms, and principles.

New Leaders

Elevate your business knowledge and prepare for leadership responsibilities, such as assessing value and performance, budgeting, and communicating the financial implications of your decisions.

Program Structure

Leading with Finance consists of approximately 35 to 40 hours of material delivered over a six-week period. You can complete the coursework on your own time while meeting regular deadlines.

Syllabus

Leading with Finance provides participants with a thorough understanding of the principles of finance—a conceptual toolkit for making smart financial decisions and the confidence to clearly articulate those decisions to key stakeholders.

Learning requirements: In order to earn a Certificate of Completion, participants must thoughtfully complete all 6 modules, including satisfactory completion of associated quizzes and capstone assignment, by stated deadlines.

Capstone Assignment: You will finish the course with a brief capstone assignment which integrates and applies the concepts covered in the course.

Build a strong understanding of the players in the financial services industry and the roles they each play

Contemplate the financial system, its flaws, and potential solutions

Evaluate perspectives on information asymmetry

Quiz #3

Module 4: Creating Value

Corning Glass

Capital Structure at Biogen

Heineken: Building a Mexican Brewery

Explore the three pillars of value creation and how to achieve them

Discover why capital is costly and how to use this information to benefit your organization

Market-to-book ratios exercises

Match companies to their cost of debt and industries to their betas

Quiz #4

Module 5: Valuation

Tops Friendly Market

Spirit Aero Systems

Dell Valuation

Determine how the future affects value today

Compare various valuation methods and examine net present value

Discuss potential risks involved in mergers and acquisitions

Calculate free cash flows, WACC, and terminal values

Practice scenario analysis

Quiz #5

Module 6: Capital Allocation

Apple iPrefs

Convergence Pharmaceuticals

Heineken Ethiopia Expansion

Biogen Share Repurchases

Discuss capital allocation and the use of free cash flow

Analyze the various options companies have for investing their cash through reinvestment or distribution

Determine which "type" of money will empower new business ideas to flourish

Capital allocation decision tree analysis

Weigh value of dividends vs. share buybacks

Quiz #6

Capstone project

The HBS Online Advantage

World-class faculty

Edge-of-your-seat online learning

Global peer collaboration and networking

Real-world, case-based learning

Harvard Business School Online offers a unique and highly engaging way to learn vital business concepts. Immerse yourself in real challenges faced by experts from the worlds of corporate finance, private equity, and investment management, including Laurence Debroux, CFO of Heineken; Paul Clancy, CFO of Biogen; and Alberto Moel, an equity research analyst at Sanford Bernstein. Step into their shoes and wrestle with the same issues they faced, while engaging with fellow learners from around the world.

Stories from Our Learners

Mihir Desai was able to bring a relatively dry and inscrutable page of numbers to life in a highly engaging and interactive way. He has a great teaching style: clear, sharp, entertaining, and challenging. Mihir was able to truly engage our leaders of all levels of financial experience on the key levers of performance and how this applies to their own businesses.

Ryan Eagar,
Director, Global Learning and Development at Heineken International

Having a deep understanding of finance is crucial to effectively lead a business, and Mihir Desai’s engaging delivery of rich content through the case study method has given me the confidence to clearly message important financial updates and decisions to our key stakeholders.

Sarah Kauss,
Founder & CEO at S'well

No matter the size, depth, or reach of any organization or your role in that organization, a foundational understanding of the finances that drive performance is essential. Mihir’s style is one that is inviting, energetic, and thought-enhancing. He really instills the fundamental belief that in our careers we are really only there to complete one task and that is ‘think.’ He makes you ‘think’ about what we are viewing, turn it over, and makes you ‘think’ about what falls apart and how to put it back together.

Our easy online application is free, and no special documentation is required. All applicants must be at least 18 years of age, proficient in English, and committed to learning and engaging with fellow participants throughout the course. We confirm enrollment eligibility within one week of your application.